You may remember the panic as small boats began crossing the Mediterranean, and later on, the Channel, as refugees began arriving in what felt like a never-ending stream...
This reminded me of the "White Crucifixion" painted about 75 years ago by Chagall as Jewish refugees were fleeing during the Holocaust. Chagall had painted the figure of Christ on the cross wearing a Jewish Prayer-shawl to identify him with those fleeing as synagogues were being plundered of sacred scrolls and homes destroyed whilst some fortunate refugees had managed to board a boat, probably bound for Palestine...
My father (who was in the Royal Navy during World War II) had told me, as a young child, how he had been on board a ship sent in convoy to protect these refugees... but as the Luftwaffe bombs hurtled down, both his ship and the refugee ship were hit. He told me how he had been trying to swim to safety, dodging the burning debris ! / hardly a good bedtime story for a young girl... but he suffered terribly form flashbacks... and I also picked up his nightmares ! [my poor mother had to cope with two traumatised members of the family]
These memories never left me, and returned with full force when I saw Chagall's painting together with all the photos of fleeing refugees 75 years later. I found myself walking along the Estuary at Brightlingsea, and watching a small ferryboat struggling against the waves as it battled the wind and currents both going against it as it made its way towards shore...
I began to wonder "what if...
what if that little boat were bringing a small group of refugees here, and instead of landing in Dover, they had lost their way and were landing up here in Brightlingsea... ?
How would we welcome them ??
...
That became the inspiration for my painting : Indigo Crucifixion...
How did we treat Jewish refugees?
... and now ? 75 years later, how are we treating Assylum Seekers today ??
